What games are you playing now?

January 22nd, 2009, 00:01

Originally Posted by dteowner
I finally stopped trying to force myself to work on a serious game and reloaded PuzzleQuest. It's just as fun the second time around. I'm approaching the half-way point, IIRC.

So it appears I managed to get about 5 weeks out of this run, averaging probably 30 minutes a night. I just took down Lord Bane on my first attempt (I've got mad skilz , but the skulls fell nearly fairly - which is about as good as you can ask for with the cheating AI - and I had a whopping 2 HP left at the end). I think I'm ready for a deeper commitment now, so I'll have to make a decision. Another NWN2 attempt, or another DivDiv attempt, or maybe a MM6 revival, or perhaps an X3:R?

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?

— Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. - John F Kennedy
An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind. - Mahatma Gandhi
The world is my country. To do good is my religion. My mind is my own church. This simple creed is all we need to enjoy peace on earth. - Thomas Paine

I just bought something I've been studiously avoiding all these years: Civilization. To be specific, the Civ IV "Complete" edition, with all the expansions and what not.

I just played through my first campaign — mini-world, easiest difficulty, just to get a handle on the basic gameplay.

(1) Yes, it is scarily addictive. It's now 1:40 am, and I only meant to play a few rounds.
(2) Can't say much more yet. I ended up with a very bizarre tech evolution; I got ironsides before oceangoing sail, and then went directly from caravels to destroyers. IOW, I don't think I was doing everything right.

Originally Posted by dteowner
I've got Ravenhearst. I assumed it was a kids' game when I grabbed it for Mrs dte. She likes adventure-type games but isn't very good at them. Good game?

The first one is a puzzlegame through and through. Most of the game you search rooms. Everytime you enter ar room you get a list of items like "Hammer, Scissors, Phone, Purse". Then you have to find each of the items listed in an image overfilled with stuff and click on them. Sometimes to enter rooms you have to unlock a puzzle. Once in awhile you unlock diary pages that you have to puzzle together.

All in all, the first game was decent. It was fun to play together with my cohabit, but it was also a bit annoying, especially puzzling the diary pages got boring soon enough. Towards the end you also felt like you were doing the same things over and over again.

The second game keeps the "find stuff" gameplay, but is also an adventuregame that makes far more sense. Rooms are connected and you unlock puzzles to get through to the next area, with an ongoing story. Unlike the first game, whenever you searched through a room you get to keep one of the found items that becomes an object that can be used elsewhere, just like an adventuregame. I found the 2nd game to be much greater than the first one.

— Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. - John F Kennedy
An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind. - Mahatma Gandhi
The world is my country. To do good is my religion. My mind is my own church. This simple creed is all we need to enjoy peace on earth. - Thomas Paine

Really? I thought the rather radical additions of culture, religion, and influence ruined the formula that worked so well in Civ2. The game had extremely simple mechanics that allowed for a very deep experience. All those changes in Civ4 muddied up the mechanics without really adding much depth. Civ4 didn't last long on my rig, but Civ2 has stayed installed and still gets run when I get the itch.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?

hmm, you are right dte, I also did not feel the new things was an improvement. But the basic concepts are still the same, like moving around armies and settlers, managing cities, and watching for good spots to build them, researching the technology and begin at beginning of civization etc.

Religion has been in since the first CIV, but it was different here, I kind of like that the special people could be born in your city, and you could move them around and get bonuses. But on the other hand I also agree that it was annoying at times.

I guess they added that to make some changes at least, otherwise they could just say look it is the same game but with updated graphics.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I guess they added that to make some changes at least, otherwise they could just say look it is the same game but with updated graphics.

And since that was the knock on Civ3 (graphic update of Civ2), they really had no choice but to mess with the fundamentals a bit. Adding religion and culture did make the game more like a real world sim, which might have been the top-level goal.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?

I dunno, I liked religion. I founded Christianity and Islam, got Confucianism from the Mongols, and eventually ran into a whole bunch of Jewish Aztecs. It was a bit unsettling to be greeted by "Shall we sacrifice 50,000 slaves each to celebrate our meeting?"

civ 2 was good, alpha centauri was 4x better though. i've played all of the civ's, though only the expansions for civ 4 not the older ones and the additions are welcome , i personally don't think of culture as being radical, and i love the fact that through influence you can absorb other cities slowly ebbing away at them without need for military actions. basically though they are all the same: so easy to waste many hours, yet there is little satisfaction in actually finishing a game as usually the satisfaction is thriving long enough to see the whole faux world. civ 4 colonozation had an interesting premise, yet i found it the worst game as balance was horrible, for there were more than 100 british forces ready to pounce on me when i finally stopped colonizing and wanted independence. (both times)

currently i'm playing knights of honor again for my turn based strategy fix. the game is a real gem and while somewhat similar to the total war series, it does a number of things much better especially in regards to diplomacy. more nations and you are limited to a certain number of slots for your generals, and priests, spies, merchants, etc. for those who haven't played it before i highly suggest the 100 turn demo. the music reminds me of divine divinity for some reason.

I played both expansions and I was almost happy Monolith said they weren't canon.

— Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. - John F Kennedy
An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind. - Mahatma Gandhi
The world is my country. To do good is my religion. My mind is my own church. This simple creed is all we need to enjoy peace on earth. - Thomas Paine

Completely out of the blue, I got the urge to install Bioshock again. I'm playing on easy again and it's still great fun. Even when I know the story and have experienced the atmosphere, it's still very immersive. Actually, knowing the ending is allowing me to appreciate some of the clues more.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?